Tim Letscher

If there is one overarching theme coming out of The Wall Street Journal’s D: Dive Into Mobile conference, it’s that the future is in your pocket.

It’s no surprise that a conference focused on mobile is going to claim that mobile is the future, but when the executive chairman of Google, the CEO of Mozilla and the CTO of engineering for Facebook are doing the talking, it can’t be ignored. As Mike Schroepfer, the CTO of Facebook said, “If you’re building for the Web, you’re doing it wrong.” It wasn’t just tech companies evangelizing this message either. Bob Bowman, president of Major League Baseball Advanced Media said, “We’re big believers that this [phone] screen is the first screen. Anybody that doesn’t believe that is living on another planet or doesn’t have children. Reality is the second screen.”

That brings up another point made clear during the conference: For younger generations, mobile is their primary avenue of communication. Nancy Lublin, CEO of the nonprofit DoSomething.org, reaches more than a million teens every week via Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, but her number one way of reaching them is SMS. In fact, her organization boasts a 97 percent open rate on SMS, with an average reply time of just 14 minutes. If you want to reach a teen, it better be on mobile.

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel illustrated an adoption pattern worth noting. His ephemeral photo-sharing app was widely adopted by teenagers, followed by an older generation representing the teens’ parents. Only then did the millennial generation start to catch on, an adoption pattern to remember the next time you’re launching an app or a marketing program. To put Snapchat’s success in perspective, Instagram gets 45MM photo uploads a month. Snapchat gets 150MM. Why? Spiegel said, “We believe the default should be ephemerality.” The notion of ephemerality is worth watching. The permanence of Facebook or the self-aware nature of Instagram and Twitter restrict us, in a way in which we are consciously publishing a piece of our idealized self. Snapchat is very much in the moment and in many ways is closer to everyday conversations that live on in memory rather than on your permanent record. Brands should acknowledge this shift and consider moving some resources in this direction to attract this audience.

Notably absent from the conference was Apple. While execs from Snapchat, Waze and WhatsApp were there to represent iOS app success, most off-the-cuff comments about the future of mobile centered on Android. The open nature of the Android operating system plays perfectly into mobile, especially when thinking of mobile as a context and less as a device. If the context is a house or a car or a backyard, the versatility of Android can adapt to that setting. As marketers, we need to design for this future, giving more weight to location and time of day, rather than device. This way, we can put context data to use to deliver the kind of relevant stuff that makes peoples’ lives easier, productive and fulfilling.

Kyle Johnson

Seeing social media sharing buttons across the top of a site has become the norm. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and even Google+ have buttons on almost every page we see. Some tools, like addthis.com, even let you add over 300 social network buttons to your site. With all these choices, how do you determine which networks are the best for your site?

Through testing, we set out to identify just that, the best set of social sharing buttons to include on one of our client sites. What we found was surprising: Pinterest is both the hero and the villain of social sharing buttons.

What We Did

We tested two different combinations of sharing buttons. The Original Set included buttons for Facebook and Twitter. The Test Set added Pinterest and Google+ buttons, along with a “more” dropdown that included tumblr and StumbleUpon. Each set was presented about 50% of the time on a highly trafficked site. We tracked shares using both Google Analytics and network specific insights platforms, such as Facebook Insights.

What We Learned

The Pinterest button has volume, Facebook is close
In the Test Set, Pinterest and Facebook accounted for 63 times more button shares than all four of the other networks combined. In the Original Set, Facebook outperformed Twitter by a factor of 93. So, for this audience Google+, Twitter, StumbleUpon and tumblr sharing buttons are all non-factors. We can’t make blanket statements about the success of those network buttons, as this behavior is audience driven, but those networks regularly have a lower volume. Visitors are still sharing content on lesser networks, but it appears that they prefer other methods of sharing than buttons.

The Pinterest button bullies Facebook
The addition of the Pinterest button increased the total number of button shares almost 500%, but came at the cost of a 33% reduction in Facebook Likes and shares. In fact, adding the Pinterest button led to a 31% loss of shares on all other networks. It would seem that visitors are only willing to share using one button, and that Pinterest takes precedence. Is Pinterest worth the reduction of Facebook shares?

The Pinterest button also bullies Pinterest
When given the option to use a sharing button instead of an organic method, such as the Pin It! bookmarklet, visitors will use the button. This seems obvious, but there are some implications. There was a 30% reduction in  organic Pins once the Pinterest button was added. So, total button shares went up with the addition of a Pinterest button, but a majority of the increase was from people using the button instead of sharing organically; ultimately at the cost of Facebook interactions.

What’s the value of a Pin?
The value of a social share is as contested as the measurement as value of a social follower. Pinterest, being new and unique, is even harder to define. There’s a few subtle ways Pinterest and its users behave that provide some insight into the benefit of a Pin.

Pins quickly lose branding. While looking at your feed, no source is displayed for Pins or Repins. In fact, to see the source while shifting through a person’s pins you need to navigate to the particular user’s individual boards. Repins account for 80% of all Pins, one of our client’s popular photos last month was pinned 13 times from the site and repined over 11,000 times. The mobile experience behaves similarly.

So, without a user taking extra steps to find the source of a Pin, it remains fairly anonymous. If your photo content is not easily recognizable, Pinterest users will likely not know it’s related your brand. If your brand has easily recognizable content, such as cars or mascots, branding will remain. Except for a few iconic pieces, food, clothing and furniture are all products examples that often are Pinned without brand recognition.

If you run a photo-centric site, you’ve undoubtedly noticed spikes in Pinterest referrals. For sites we track, usually one or two Pins are responsible for the majority of the increase. On average, we’ve seen visitors from Pinterest spend 70% less time on site, have a bounce rate increase of 30%, and mostly view only the page they landed on from the Pin. In the data we analyzed, site visitors from Pinterest provide little value to high-level objectives.

Takeaways
Unless you’re targeting an audience that matches a lesser-used network’s demographics, leave the buttons off the site and let people share organically.

While some brands have used Pinterest accounts correctly, value for most brands lies in the organic pinning already happening without a Pinterest button.

We’re big believers in never-ending testing, so this is just the beginning. As we roll out other styles and combinations, we’ll let you know how these initial findings change.

Cassie D'Kae + Michael Schwandt

Stepping off the elevators at Colle+McVoy, employees and visitors are immediately greeted by sounds of Minnesota’s beloved, eclectic radio station, The Current, pumping through the speakers. Its presence isn’t just a welcomed distraction, it helps define and capture the energy of this agency. The Current doesn’t have a specific format — it’s not top 40, it’s not classic rock, it’s not lite jazz. It’s a station that tries to share the most creative and interesting music that programmers can find, whether it’s a gem from the past, or an obscure new artist on the cusp of stardom. Colle+McVoy has a similar desire — to foster a community of creativity and share the most innovative work we can with the rest of the world. Our music choice is definitely no accident.

It is apparent from one walk around the offices of C+M that our love for music definitely does not stop in the lobby. Desks are adorned with headphones and speakers of all shapes and sizes. Personal rock out sessions or cubicle dance parties can spontaneously erupt at any time. And there is always someone talking about a show they saw, will see, or wanted to see but couldn't attend. Music permeates our walls and ears 24/7. It truly is creative fuel that plays an enormous role in establishing a fun, inspirational and open atmosphere, rather than a stale, dry one.

So what is it about music that is so intrinsically tied to creative-driven industries, advertising in particular? According to Don Campbell, author of The Mozart Effect and a renowned authority on the transformative power of music, "Music can be used to stimulate, activate, and relax the mind and body.” All of which are key elements in a successful creative process, and hence, producing stand out work for clients. What’s more? Elena Mannes, author of The Power of Music, states, "scientists have found that music stimulates more parts of the brain than any other human function."

At Colle+McVoy —based in the heart of urban, arts-heavy Minneapolis— music offers employees respite in the middle of a stressful day, provides sonic caffeine for late nights and early morning deadlines, and gives us just the right amount of inspiration to successfully complete a project. For C+M, creativity is not a department, but an expectation of all employees. So although musical tastes are wide and varied at C+M, there’s no doubt that it positively impacts every individual, acting as a catalyst for us each to reach our full creative potential.

A fierce advocate of music in almost any environment, Campbell believes, “More and more businesses are recognizing the importance of music in the workplace." This is certainly true at C+M, and has been for some time. Since music surrounds is ingrained in our culture and pushes us to do great work, we have decided to go one step further by bringing bands and musicians to perform live at the agency. This initiative, dubbed C+M Sessions, will kick off its inaugural performance this evening, Thursday, Aug. 2, with local roadhouse rockers, The 4onthefloor. It’s time to take off your headphones, put on your dancing shoes, and swill a cold beer to some rock and roll in the summer sun.

...Even When They Know Your Website Address

According to a recent comScore ranking of search engine activity in the U.S., more than 20 billion total searches were conducted across major search engines in December 2011. That’s a lot. 3% more than were conducted the previous month.

But the figure shouldn’t be too surprising given the role search plays in our lives. Another recent set of data from comScore, shared in its annual U.S. Digital Future in Focus report, found that the U.S. market for search grew at an 11% clip last year. Not only did 2011 see a slight 3% uptick in unique searchers, but existing users of search ran 7% more searches. It’s clear that we rely on search to discover. And our reliance on it is clearly increasing.

Our analytics team fielded a question from one of our clients about how people use search engines to make their discoveries and interact with the Web. Specifically, our challenge was to use Google Analytics to demonstrate whether people still rely on search engines even when they had already discovered the content they were seeking.

The Challenge

Do people continue to use search engines even when they already know the URL?

The Methodology

• Assume visitors returning to a website already know the URL.
• Acknowledge that this means return visitors would arrive through direct sources rather than through search.
• Compare a full year’s worth of return traffic sources to those of new visitors among site profiles within Colle+McVoy’s Google Analytics account.

What This Means

Returning visitors are much more likely to find your brand through search, even when they already know your website address. The data above indicates that visitors continue to rely on search engines even after they have some level of awareness regarding their intended online destination. Marketers therefore need to ensure that their online presence is relevant enough to appear in search engine results not only for first-time visitors—but also for those who have already been to the site.

Craig Pladson

Minnesotan marketers get interactive. This has never been more apparent than it was this past Wednesday at the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) Summit. The theme of the conference was “Celebrating the Digital Decade,” which served not only as a testament to the monumental changes we’ve experienced in digital, but also a celebration of MIMA being the oldest and biggest interactive marketing association in the country. MIMA has pioneered a local path that allows organizations to elevate their talent by offering premium programs that present high-quality speakers to share the digital love.

There were more than 60 speakers at this year’s MIMA Summit, who were organized into 10 different tracks for attendees to choose from: content and storytelling, digital decade, e-commerce and e-mail, marketing technologies, measurement, mobile and screens, the nonprofit perspective, social media, trends and user experience. Colle+McVoy sent a group of people from various disciplines in order to take in as much as we could from the 40 different sessions.

Outside the two keynote speakers (Avinash Kaushik + Chris Anderson), I spent most of the day attending sessions listed in the user experience track. With the hope of capturing the perspective of everyone who attended from Colle+McVoy, I solicited feedback by asking for two or three sentence descriptions of themes they identified throughout the day. The unpredictable nature of the Web and technology rose to the top. Avinash’s opening keynote talk set the tone, “Predicting what the Web will be in five years is impossible. What we learned six months ago is irrelevant today. Which is why we all continue to do this and why all of you are here. That’s what I love about my job.” Avinash closed by talking about how failure inherently follows the unpredictability of innovation. By failing fast, interactive marketers can swiftly adapt to the real-time changes in consumer behavior.

The idea of unpredictability carried over into the first session I attended, titled “The Future of UX” by Boon Sheridan. “You can’t put things in motion and predict the future of digital and technology because it changes so fast. Focus on the now. The reality is that we can’t solve for design problems that don’t exist today,” emphasized Sheridan. He continued, “Design for interruption. It’s impossible to perfectly guide someone through the digital ecosystem.” The idea of digital ecosystems has become a common phrase among UX professionals and digital strategists. Given the ecosystem’s unpredictability, Sheridan recommended starting all digital projects by storyboarding a few different use-case scenarios and then layering in the navigational and content gaps that exist. From there, teams can brainstorm possible solutions before initiating design concepts.

Edward Boches and David Armano also covered the unpredictability of innovation in their session “Group Therapy for Would-Be Innovators.” Boches argued there are three ways agencies can grow: 1) sell existing services, 2) develop new services for existing clients, 3) create new services for new clients. Innovation can fuel any of these growth strategies when the agency’s workforce is liberated to work on experiential projects. Due to the unpredictable nature of the Web and technology, the only way to keep up with the shifts in consumer behavior is to experiment. Learn by doing. And failing. Hearing these perspectives definitely solidified my perspective on how Colle+McVoy has started to formally harness innovation across the agency. My role may serve as a catalyst to identify opportunities for innovation, but it’s the makeup of the agency that allows us to produce ideas such as Squawq, Super Chatter and SXSW Talks.

My final session of the day, “Rethinking User Research and Usability Testing for the Social Web,” offered one final reminder of the unpredictability of the Web and consumer behavior. “We don’t know how to find out about things we don’t know about. People don’t act in the real world as we want them to in usability tests. People don’t live in a world doing one task with one device out of context,” explained Dana Chisnell. She said, “The Web has always been social, but it’s now more social than ever. The Web enables a powerful platform for human-to-human interaction facilitated by technology.” Because of this, Chisnell expressed the importance of rethinking how we gather people’s feedback as we create digital experiences. With the Web being an enabler of human-to-human interaction, understanding people’s online relationships is more important than ever. We need to stop looking for the things we know about in usability testing and challenge ourselves to find the things we don’t know about.

MIMA was right. The imperfection and unpredictability of the past, present and future of interactive marketing should be celebrated. It should be celebrated because our community has demonstrated an unmatched passion and interest in learning, failing and obsessing over how we can get smarter and better at what we do. There’s a reason people like Avinash Kaushik and Chris Anderson are coming to Minnesota. It’s because we’re humble enough to be obviously curious and we have some of the top brands and agencies in the country producing some of the best interactive work on the planet.

Craig Pladson

Pete Cashmore and Dennis Crowley’s presentation, Enabling New Experiences & Creating Serendipity Through Check-ins, was the most tweeted about presentation at the 2011 SXSW Interactive Festival. According to SXSWTalks.com, there were over 5,500 tweets during their presentation, which generated more than 10 million impressions throughout the Twittersphere within 24 hours. Across all social media, the reaction to their presentation was 93 percent favorable, with 38 percent of these posts being positive.

The purpose of our proposed SXSW presentation, SXSW Presentations: The Good, The Bad, The Trending, is to get to the bottom of what makes a stand out presentation at SXSW. Pete and Dennis’ presentation fits the bill, which is why it’s highlighted here. Not only did it generate a significant number of tweets, but it also spread at an impressive clip with 46 percent of these tweets being retweeted. It’s amazing to think that 140 characters can spread to 10 million people over the course of 24 hours.

In addition to the quantitative analysis conducted at SXSWTalks.com, we assessed the presentation qualitatively by listening to the presentation and watching clips of it on You Tube. Based on our analysis, we’ve arrived at the following hypotheses:

Involve the Audience and Give Hugs

The Crowley family won Family Feud in 2009. Creating a perfect excuse for Pete Cashmore to poll attendees with random questions about Dennis and then emcee a quasi-Family Feud event. As Pete proposed questions, he encouraged audience participation. He also facilitated an open mic Q+A at the end of the presentation. Dennis even gave a woman a hug. Moral of the story? Get the audience involved and give hugs.

Unveil Exclusive Information

When Dennis first arrived onstage, Pete crowned him mayor of SXSW. Minutes later, Pete asked Dennis about the just-released version of Foursquare. Seconds after that, they were discussing venue harmonization, Foursquare’s most recent product enhancement. To wrap up their discussion, Dennis insisted on making an announcement about an exclusive Foursquare party. Give the audience a feeling of exclusivity and you’ll have them eating out of the palm of your hand.

Dual Format Popularity is an Anomaly

There are six different presentation formats at SXSWi. Surprisingly, this was the only dual format presentation in the top 10 most tweeted about presentations at SXSWi. Four of the top 10 most tweeted about talks were panel presentations with four or more speakers. Less isn’t more in this case.
If there were a proverbial social media iceberg, this would only be the tip of it. Mike and I hope to earn your vote to make a trip to the 2012 SXSW Interactive Festival to present our full analysis. And, if we do make it, be sure to check-in to our presentation on Gowalla, because that’s what the cool kids do. One hundred and fifty five people checked in to Pete and Dennis’ presentation on Gowalla, compared to 31 people who checked in on Foursquare. Wait, what? That’s right. Austin-based Gowalla out-checked-in Foursquare. #winning

Full audio of Pete and Dennis' presentation:

Craig Pladson

We’ve been working hard to bring you an experience that tells you who we are, why you should work with us and - ultimately - inspires you to make a difference and join us in our vision to stand out.

We pushed ourselves to treat this project as we would any other client assignment. The clients in this case were the leadership team, and I had the pleasure of leading our internal team all the way from strategy to execution. This approach encouraged accountability and challenged us to practice what we preach. We learned a ton along the way, and we’re proud of the work we produced.

The Opportunity

As we assessed our previous .com and social media presence, we realized there was opportunity for improvement. Our previous interactive experience didn't accurately demonstrate who we are and what we're great at. It also didn't allow for the flexibility required by the dynamic nature of social media and agileness of mobile. If we could improve in these specific areas, we knew creating a stand out interactive experience was achievable.

Insight + Strategic Direction

Our findings from the qualitative and quantitative research we conducted uncovered what makes C+M more than an advertising agency. We invent analytics tools from scratch. We write job descriptions for clients. We offer strategic counsel on business-level strategies. We offer fulfillment capabilities in house. We build 3-D dioramas. The engine that makes all of this possible is the people who work here. And here is a special place. Employees and clients described the feeling they get when they walk off the elevator at C+M, and that feeling is what we wanted our online experience to emulate. We worked off the key insight that C+M is more than just a workplace; it’s the incubator for and manifestation of the vibrant, warm and open spirit of its people.

Audience + Architecture

With this insight in mind, we initiated a complete run-through of potential conceptual architecture solutions before creating visual design concepts. We explored organizational schemes based on four distinct audience profiles that we brought to life through personas and use case scenarios. We mapped out an agile experience that made itself smarter over time. An experience based heavily on search and a sophisticated tagging system, allowing site visitors to surface content they find relevant and useful.

Design

Our user experience strategies led to design concepting. We generated multiple concepts and put them up on the wall for review. One prevailed. The one you’re experiencing now. As we brought people through a prototyped version of the Web site, they reacted positively to the design and photography style. We hope your reaction is the same, but we also want to make sure the experience delivers on getting you to the information you’re seeking easily and efficiently.

Usability

During our usability sessions, we also observed people hesitantly browsing through our progressively created navigation system. A system built on the search-based tagging previously described. We offer five ways for people to navigate: 1) entering a search query, 2) clicking on a trending topic, 3) vertically scrolling through image tiles, 4) horizontally browsing via contextual links and 5) using the keyboard. Usability findings led to design and functionality tweaks that resulted in an experience surpassing the standards our team set. Time to go live.

An Experience Built From Behavior

Going live is only the initiation of what the experience will eventually come to be. The Web site as it exists today serves as the foundational platform we will constantly monitor and change to adapt to visitor behavior. Meaning, the next time you come back, your experience will be better. Furthermore, we continue to add content to the site (e.g., case studies, blog posts). Another reason to come back. In the meantime, I encourage you to leave a comment below or offer feedback through the survey we’ve created.

Craig Pladson

“Ideas don’t happen because they’re great or by accident.”

This was Scott Belsky’s answer when I asked what one thing he hoped people would take away from reading his national best-selling book, Making Ideas Happen.

It was an interesting answer, but it prompts an obvious next question, “How then do we make ideas happen?”

While Scott visited Colle+McVoy on July 15, 2011, I sat down with him for an exclusive interview in the hopes of gathering his insights on how we, as marketers, can increase the possibility of our ideas being shared with the world. In short, how we can make ideas happen.

What follows is a brief synopsis of the interview, outlining the five main themes that stood out.

Find Your Work Sweet Spot

Scott has always been passionate about facilitating creative production, which served as the impetus for his transition from working in leadership development at Goldman Sachs to starting Behance, an organization focused on matching the best creative talent with the best creative opportunity. “I needed to do something in a world I’m passionate about and with people I love working with.” But passion alone did not make him successful. He was able to align his enthusiasm for organizing creativity with his unique skills and opportunity streams.

Scott found his work sweet spot, have you?

Be a Student of Your Craft

During our conversation, Scott referred to himself as “a student studying design firms, agencies and creative leaders across industries to understand what they are struggling with.” As a student of organizing the creative world, Scott has identified creative professionals defying the odds and who offer a world of knowledge he can learn from. Whatever your creative craft, obsess over how you can find ways to learn more. Given the accessibility the Internet allows all of us today, this has become easier than ever.

Creativity Is a Responsibility

The name Behance came from the word “enhance,” which means to make something better, and “be,” which means being authentic and never compromising. The mission of Behance is to empower creative professionals to make ideas happen. A focus on pushing ideas to completion initiates a sense of responsibility and accountability among creative professionals. In Scott’s words, “Every artist and every creative mind should not only see their creativity as an opportunity, but also a responsibility.”

Embrace Distributed Creative Production

Advertising agencies focus on gathering all the best creative minds in-house. Scott argues this model is not sustainable because the best creative minds are going to be free radicals. “They’re going to be working on their own terms, wherever they are in the world. And they’re going to have greater output as a result of that autonomy,” Scott explained. He refers to this philosophy as “distributed creative production” and believes agencies need to embrace this idea to flourish.

Focus on Process and Kill Ideas

Ideas are plentiful in the agency world. We invest an incredible amount of time and energy in coming up with insights and ideas that allow a brand to stand out. Scott believes we should dedicate the same amount of resources to discussing how our process is organized. Rather than subscribing to the status quo, he encourages organizations to question process and test different methodologies to influence change. And during the daily execution of an idea, the tendency should be to kill ideas. “When ideas come up, the immune system of a productive creative team needs to quickly quench them in order to keep on track. We should only allow new ideas to take us off track during brainstorms,” Scott pleaded as we wrapped up our interview.

I’ll end this overview with Scott’s favorite quote from Thomas Edison: “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” Executional excellence is vital to making ideas happen. This is also the inspiration behind Scott naming Behance’s think tank The 99 Percent.

So which side are you on, the one percent or the ninety-nine percent? I welcome your thoughts below.

See full Interview »

Dan Mandle

Whether we see them as an early start to the weekend or as a jumping-off point for well-earned, longer-term vacation, we love our summer hours at Colle+McVoy!

This year, the program is back again by popular demand, even being mentioned by the Star Tribune in their selection of Colle+McVoy as one of the Top 100 Workplaces in Minnesota.

With summer in mind during last week’s rooftop carnival-cum-quarterly-meeting, our CFO urged us to take advantage of the extra time to get out of the office and explore a little bit more of the state we all call home. Disclosure: As a member of the Explore Minnesota team, I will unabashedly take any and all opportunities to proselytize about how diverse (and great!) the options are for vacations right here in Minnesota! I absolutely LOVE that there are more of us at the office who feel the same way!

I also love working for a creative advertising agency whose leadership implores us to get out of the office and use our vacation time. Only 38 percent of Americans actually take all their vacation days, according to this article in CNNMoney. That figure could surely be increased with a leadership group as supportive as ours.

In any event, my coworkers will all be asking themselves similar questions as Friday afternoons approach:
Are our loose ends tied up for the week?
Have we called our clients and wished them well for the weekend?
Did we do our timesheets?
If so, we’re free to depart for distant shores. The caveat again being that I really, truly hope those shores are located in-state. An early start to backyard tasks and household chores is also fair game.

So what do Colle+McVoyers actually plan to do with their summer hours? We took an internal poll recently to find some answers. Our own Sean Cooley helped make sense of the numbers.

Here’s to the #solstice. Happy summer!